On Monday morning, Markit released its latest set of data on the state of the UK’s construction sector, and to say things didn’t look good would be an understatement.
The sector slipped into contraction for the first time since April 2013, hitting just 46.o, a shock fall from an already poor base last month, and the biggest single month fall since 2009. All this helped confirm fears about a coming crash in the UK’s construction industry.
Generally speaking, Markit doesn’t make grand proclamations and or use strong language about its data, but on Monday representatives from both Markit and CIPS, which jointly produced the survey, variously said that “the rate of decline was not as sharp as that experienced during the last recession” and called the data “a clear warning flag for the wider post-Brexit economic outlook.”